this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] CommissarVulpin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Okay, so what’s the point of “proving” that there some “infinities” are “bigger” than others? What’s the practical application here? Because an infinite hotel with an infinite number of guests is physically impossible, so I don’t see the point.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 4 points 1 month ago

Practical application in math tends to be like three degrees of separation and half a century removed from the math at play. In this case, all of modern mathematics is based on set theory, so it's more that this stuff allows us to do other, more practically useful math while knowing what we're talking about.

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[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

like the infinite monkeys with typewritters, universal limits to the rescue. Trolley's are slow. Each bump makes them slower. Some of the people in the discrete line will have long lives until an excruciatingly painful death from dehydration.

[–] nathanjent@programming.dev 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

An infinite amount of people on the track implies that the track is infinitely long. If that is not the case and the track is a normal length then the sudden addition of all that bio-mass in a finite space will cause a gravitational collapse. But will the collapse start on the first track or the second? Either way I hope you saved your game because you might lose your progress.

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[–] AkatsukiLevi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hold the lever halfway so the trolley picks both rails at the same time, to ensure highest possible kill comboq

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's effectively just the bottom track, where an uncountable number of people (literally) will die as soon as the train reaches position (0.

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[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

What about a time loop where only one person dies, but infinite times?

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bottom. Train will stall/derail faster.

[–] _AutumnMoon_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 month ago

either way infinite people die, just not getting involved

[–] nairui@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

fossilesque you’re one of my fav posters

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[–] madjo@feddit.nl 2 points 1 month ago

Multilane drifting!

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

It'll make it through maybe 3 infinities before derailing. Go bottom, end it faster.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't think we want a world where there are any sort of infinity of people, and I don't think a tram is the solution to revert a world from having its infinities to having a finite number

I also see practicality problems in tying even a small infinity of people to railway tracks, as that requires yet another infinity of people to hold people down, and another infinity of people people to do the tying (as well as the infinities of people to do the tying and holding on the other track) and all of those people will have to be fed and watered with infinite amounts of food and water (some infinities of people for infinite time), the infinities of people tying people down would need some education, implying infinite teachers

It's a logistic nightmare

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

If the next person getting tied down holds down the person currently being tied down then this could work. I’m sure they’d be game so that’s fine.

[–] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

I take the square root of all the negative real numbers and kill in an entirely new dimension.

[–] wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago

Like everything else in this holographic universe we live in, I’d just close my eyes and believe the bodies I’m trampling are imaginary.

[–] p3n@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I do what I always do: run to the trolley, then jump up and pull the emergency stop because I hate false dilemmas.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Correct, because if we ignore some important facts you could also have infinite time to stop the trolley. Checkmate, false dilemma creators.

[–] TomMasz@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

I remember seeing a science show on PBS where the presenter explained how there are different infinities by using set theory and the integers/reals. That was mind-blowing at the time.

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